


first snow

by andnowforyaya



Category: B.A.P, K-pop
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Crushes, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-05
Updated: 2014-01-05
Packaged: 2018-01-07 14:21:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1120891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andnowforyaya/pseuds/andnowforyaya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daehyun can be a cold, cold man, but that doesn't stop Youngjae from sneaking out of school to follow him. Or, the one where Daehyun is an Ice Mage and Youngjae is a Water Mage and there is obsession, and crushes, and a fire.</p>
            </blockquote>





	first snow

**Author's Note:**

> Now also in Russian! [Here's the link~](https://ficbook.net/readfic/3250794) Thanks to [mari_key](http://archiveofourown.org/users/mari_key/profile) for translating :)

Obsession was, like, totally not the problem here, even though Youngjae had most definitely broken out of the school against the rules and followed Daehyun's group to their current location to the south side of the city, where apparently there was a mediocre witch trying to sell half-assed talismans to unsuspecting city dwellers, and it was causing quite the ruckus when, overnight, customers of these talismans found themselves waking up as a member of the opposite sex (rather than wealthier, or more beautiful, or luckier, as they had expected the talismans to do). 

 

Youngjae didn't see what the big deal was. He'd probably make an excellent girl for a few days. He supposed that the more permanent nature of the change was probably what was alarming the folk. Daehyun's group was actually Bang Yongguk's group and they had been tasked with tracking the witch down and putting a stop to the faulty talismans, preferably gently and without much fuss. He'd overheard when he was spying on the Principal's meeting with the upperclassman from a grate in the vents.

 

Junhong came over to the table then, with two steaming bowls of soup filled with vegetables and noodles, his pink hair and height making him easy to distinguish from the crowd. They were in an outdoor night market, noisy and full of people hawking sales and fresh produce and meats, in their "civilian clothes," as Junhong liked to call it. This just meant the ordinary jeans and t-shirts and jackets and boots of the times. Their uniform at school involved cloaks. It wasn't something a student could wear outside without getting noticed, unless there was a convention or something.

 

Junhong placed the bowls on the table and sat across from Youngjae, smiling. "Got these for the price of one," he whispered mischievously. 

 

"Illusions?" Youngjae asked, already slurping up his noodles.

 

Junhong shook his head. "Sweet-talking."

 

A young-ish waitress came by their small table then, smile sugary-sweet, and placed a bottle of soju and two shot glasses on the table, too. "Service," she said, winking at Junhong.

 

"Thanks, noona," Junhong cooed, and she melted a little as she walked away.

 

Youngjae gagged.

 

"Jealous?" Junhong ate a huge mouthful of his food, then quickly unscrewed the bottle of soju and poured two overflowing shots of the drink. "Oh, wait," he said. "Girls like that probably don't even register with you, huh? You've got Daehyun."

 

"It's not like that!" Youngjae protested, heavily.

 

Junhong gave him a look, one of total disbelief. To counter it, Youngjae took his shot of soju without waiting for them to clink glasses first. "It's not," he said, gulping. "Daehyun and I are classmates, and I just admire him for his skill, and his coolness, and his looks, and other stuff like that."

 

"Uh huh," Junhong said. "Which is why you made me sneak out with you to, what, see him in action? They're not even doing anything exciting - just talking to the witch and telling her to go quitsville, none of his flashy ice-stuff."

 

"It's not flashy," Youngjae said immediately. It wasn't. Daehyun's ability to manipulate ice was something beautiful to behold. He wished he had that much control over his own element, water.

 

"That one time he got really mad at Himchan-hyung and scared him into apologizing by making a huge ice-dragon and having it chase him all around the gym? That's flashy. Totally unnecessary."

 

"That was  _art_ ," Youngjae said hotly.

 

"I will never understand what you see in him." Junhong waved his chopsticks around, and then poured Youngjae another shot. They clinked glasses and drank. "He's totally unapproachable. Even that guy - Yongguk - says that sometimes he doesn't know how to talk to him. Daehyun is such a--"

 

Junhong paused, gulped, and looked down at his noodles, cheeks flushing furiously.

 

"Such a what?" Youngjae demanded, narrowing his eyes at his friend.

 

A voice behind him went, "Yeah. Why don't you finish that sentence."

 

Youngjae squeaked. A hand clapped down on his shoulder, and attached to that hand was the object of his obsession - affection - no, the guy they were talking about. Daehyun continued touching Youngjae's shoulder and Youngjae felt like drowning himself in his bowl of noodles, even as Daehyun pulled up another stool from an empty table and sat down with them. 

 

"Such a what?" Daehyun repeated. His face was blank and cool. His eyes flashed cobalt blue before returning to their normal chocolate brown.

 

"Nothing," Junhong mumbled, still looking down at his bowl. Steam rose up and hit him in the face. Youngjae felt his own cheeks turning red, although that could have been helped along by the alcohol he'd just consumed. Alcohol wasn't something that was ever allowed in school, obviously. He didn't have much experience with it, and only knew that it tended to effect him quickly and thoroughly.

 

"Pour me a shot," Daehyun said.

 

Junhong rushed to obey. He almost knocked over the whole bottle in the process. Daehyun's hand was still on Youngjae's shoulder.

 

"And Youngjae," Daehyun said. Junhong poured another shot in the only other glass, then pushed them both over to the older boys. They each took one in hand.

 

"Oh, my god," Junhong was whispering under his breath. "Mother, help us."

 

Daehyun turned to Youngjae, releasing his hand and leaning both elbows onto the table. Faced with that stare head-on, Youngjae felt like he couldn't breathe, but he also couldn't look away. "Why are you here?"

 

Youngjae swallowed. Instead of answering, he asked, "How did you find us?"

Again, Daehyun's eyes flashed blue, and the glass in Youngjae's hand frosted over suddenly. He thought he wouldn't answer, but then Daehyun sighed. His eyes were warming, or maybe it was the lighting of the night market. "You're a water mage," Daehyun explained. "You're like a radio broadcast to me. I always know when you're around."

 

The red on Youngjae's cheeks bloomed. He felt his heart hammering in his chest. Daehyun's lips curled up into half a smile. It was a nice look on him. But then he said, "So stop following me around, you crazy stalker, or I'll report you for sneaking out, got it?"

 

The glass in Youngjae's hand shattered and he flinched, more at the steel in Daehyun's eyes and voice than in the sudden prickle of glass in his hand. There were no cuts from the broken pieces, but Youngjae still felt like he'd been stabbed.

 

Daehyun took his shot, quickly, and pounded it back onto the table before standing up and turning abruptly on his heel and walking out. Youngjae watched him go, frozen, like Daehyun had turned his very blood into ice slush, his hand curled around an invisible glass. After a moment, he realized Junhong was calling his name. He blinked. "What?"

 

"I said, are you okay? You're not bleeding. That was scary. He's scary. See? Now can we please sneak back into the school?"

 

Youngjae nodded, numb.

 

They went back, though it was not easy.

 

Daehyun did not report them.

 

.

 

Before, Youngjae always had to go out of his way to catch a glimpse of Daehyun. They weren't in the same year, so the only activities they shared were school-wide: meals in the cafeteria, studying in the library, training in the multi-level fortified gym. Now, though, it was like he couldn't stop seeing him, and every time he did, his cheeks burned, remembering Daehyun's words.

 

Their eyes would meet in the cafeteria, or he'd wander into the same study-room as Daehyun with a group of friends, or he'd see him in the gym on Level Water. Youngjae always left first. He could only take so much. He still longed to see the things Daehyun could do.

 

After the nth time running into Daehyun and a few other ice and water mages in the gym, though, Daehyun sighed at Youngjae's retreating back and said, "Yoo Youngjae. You still need to train," and so Youngjae stayed, his magic seemingly dormant at his fingers because of how nervous he was, how wrecked.

 

He couldn't stand Daehyun watching him.

 

After a while, though, it got better. Water jumped when he commanded it to, out of the track of it on this level, which was fashioned like a pool with a raised, large platform in the middle, so that the water created a sort of moat around it. Youngjae stood on the platform and raised both hands and watched as water followed them. He formed a sign and smiled when the water fell to the platform as rain.

 

"That's pretty good," Daehyun said behind him, and Youngjae jumped at the sudden noise. There had only been the three of them tonight, on Level Water - Daehyun and Youngjae and this freshman named Taehyung - and it was relatively quiet. "It's the same for hail," he continued, stepping beside Youngjae and forming the sign with his hands, too. Water rose up but then seemed to shatter, and then it fell again in little pellets of ice, clinking like marbles as they hit the platform. He said, "I've never been able to make it snow. It's too in-between."

 

"I've never tried," Youngjae whispered, afraid that if his voice was any louder, he'd scare him away, like a rare animal.

 

"You could probably do it," Daehyun said, not an ounce of teasing in his voice. 

 

Youngjae didn't know what do say to that. He must have waited too long, because the next thing Daehyun said was, "Well," and then he swept his hand and a bridge of ice formed over the space between the platform and the outer walkway, and then he left.

 

After a long moment, Taehyung's awe-filled voice echoed in the space. "He  _speaks_  to you? You  _know_  him?"

 

"I didn't think so," Youngjae said.

 

"What?" Taehyun raised both eyebrows in confusion.

 

Youngjae shrugged. "I guess he's warming up to me," he offered, which made Taehyung crack up like a lunatic, for some reason.

 

.

 

It was weird, training with Daehyun. But it was also  _awesome_.

 

He could, like,  _feel_  himself getting stronger by the day. The signs were faster, and he was getting better at just thinking the magic out there, making it happen without the signs, making it happen with a glance or a word. 

 

Sometimes, they sparred. Youngjae knew Daehyun was taking it easy on him, but the thrill of it, the exhilaration - it was addicting. He looked forward to their nightly meetings, which had crept later and later into the evening, so that soon, they had stopped running into other students at the gym. It was just them.

 

And when it was just them, Daehyun was different. His eyes flashed blue more, he shouted, he smiled,  _especially_  when it looked like Youngjae was about to get the upper hand. He overcame Youngjae, always, but the gap was narrowing.

 

"You're getting better," Daehyun observed, one night. They were both breathing heavy from the match and taking the elevator back to the dorms; tonight, Daehyun had made Youngjae repeatedly dodge disks of ice he'd flung in rapid succession his way.

 

"Thanks," Youngjae huffed, smiling. It was genuine. They were standing next to each other in the elevator, and he didn't think he'd ever stood this close to Daehyun before, arms practically touching.

 

"And you're not sneaking out, anymore," he said with a nod.

 

"I only ever did that to spy on you," Youngjae admitted.

 

Daehyun grinned, and Youngjae felt his heart stutter. His eyes were crescents, and his teeth were blinding. He had  _dimples_. "Good," Daehyun said, before getting off on his floor.

 

.

 

"Oh, god," Youngjae wailed in his dorm room. "I'm ruined. Totally and completely. This is awful." He covered his face with his pillow and wanted to scream, but Junhong probably wouldn't appreciate that. His friend was sitting cross-legged at the foot of his bed, reading one of their assignments on his tablet. 

 

"What's this about Daehyun, again? I thought we were done with that."

 

"I thought so, too!" Youngjae almost shouted. "But then - now he's all - smiley and - nice - and, like, I can't even finish this sentence!"

 

"Aw, someone has a crush."

 

"This is horrible."

 

"At least it's not an obsession. At least you're finally admitting it and not projecting your true feelings into that weird-ass stalker persona you had, before. This is much better."

 

Youngjae wallowed a little, feeling sympathetic towards himself. Daehyun probably thought of him as an annoying little brother, always tagging along and wanting to join in and being a general nuisance. No way would he be able to harbor any romantic feelings toward Youngjae at all. Then he realized what Junhong had said. "Hold on, what do you mean  _finally admitting it_."

 

But Junhong had already put his giant headphones over his ears and was back to reading, bobbing his head along to whatever music was coming out of those speakers.

 

Youngjae screamed into his pillow.

 

.

 

Training with Daehyun continued without incident. So what if Youngjae breathed a little too heavily when Daehyun took his hands to show him a new sign. So what if his cheeks turned bright red whenever Daehyun praised him. It was exertion.

 

Once, Daehyun told him to sit with him in the cafeteria. Youngjae moved with his tray and without a word, Junhong trailed behind him, smiling impishly and making suggestive motions with his lips and tongue whenever Youngjae looked back at him. He met Daehyun's friends and were surprised by how normal they were, even Himchan and this quiet boy named Jongup.

 

So they started eating together, too, and sometimes Daehyun's foot would brush past Youngjae's under the table, and he wondered what that meant.

 

.

 

Youngjae awoke to smoke clinging to his throat and pressing at his eyes. He tried to cough but couldn't, the air thick with it, almost choking instead, and sat up with the bottom of his t-shirt pressed against his face. There was smoke everywhere, grey and hot, and vaguely, he could hear a shrill alarm sounding over the scurrying of feet and shouts from his classmates. He dropped to the floor and crawled along it, to his door, grabbing a half-empty bottle of water he came across along the way. 

 

He knew the basics of fire safety. He touched the door and found it cool. He reached up and felt for the doorknob quickly, and when his finger came away unharmed, he opened the door, and he was met with even more smoke. The sounds of his classmates shouting were no longer muffled. Everyone was banging on closed doors and yelling for evacuation. In the crowd, he could make out Junhong's higher-pitched call. "Youngjae!"

 

"I'm here!" Youngjae tried to shout, but his throat was still clogged from the smoke. At least out here, he could cough, so he did. "I'm here," he tried again, and he felt a hand under his armpit hauling him up, and he wanted to say, "No, you're supposed to crawl because cold air sinks and the smoke is up top," but as soon as he stood, the air was noticeably clearer.

 

"Mage fire," Junhong explained. Its properties were different. The smoke was thicker closer to the ground. "It started upstairs and they still haven't been able to put it out. It's spreading."

 

"Upstairs?" Youngjae asked, eyes watering, clearing out the irritants. They began to jog toward the emergency exit, a staircase that led to the ground and into the city.

 

Junhong nodded, grim. "It was one of the older students," he said. "Or someone else."

 

"They couldn't put it out themselves?" Youngjae asked wildly, ignoring the  _someone else_ , because he didn't want to think about that.

 

"It was out of control. I think it was a nightmare, like a really bad one, for it to happen so suddenly, right?"

 

"You're probably right."

 

They followed the other students trailing down the stairs, circling and circling and descending, until finally Youngjae was blinking at the night sky. At street level, their school building looked like any other building in the city, tall yet unassuming amidst other tall yet unassuming buildings. A car drove by, headlights flashing. The students lined up along the edge of the sidewalk about a block away, and their teachers started doing headcounts.

 

Youngjae shivered in his thin t-shirt and boxers, hugging himself and still holding that bottle of water. He looked at all the familiar faces of the students around him, and realized that a few were missing. "Junhong," he whispered, to avoid being caught by the teachers. Just then, the Principal banged out of the emergency exit as well, and shouted, "Report!" as he ran over to where his students were.

 

"What?" Junhong whispered back.

"Daehyun and Yongguk are missing. And Himchan."

 

Junhong was silent. A beat passed. He said, "You're right."

 

The teachers, done with their headcounts, rushed to gather around the Principal and whispered things as well. The Principal looked up at their building, frowning. He put his fingers to his temples, like he had a headache, and sighed. Another teacher put her hand on his arm. She was frowning, too.

 

"They're not doing anything," Youngjae whispered again, a shock of adrenaline pumping suddenly through his system, making his knees shake. "Why aren't they doing anything?"

 

Everyone's eyes were on the smoke furling out of the seams of the windows in the top levels of the building. The smoke was blue-ish, and blackened everything it touched. Youngjae could see no fire, though he searched rapidly. He realized he was looking for movement, for signs of life. Daehyun was still up there, somewhere, probably.

 

The door banged open again, catching everyone's attention. Out of it three figures stumbled, the middle one slumped between the other two. The entire student body gasped collectively, as two teachers separated from the group to help them. Youngjae felt his body jump at the sight. He wanted to run to them. One of them must be Daehyun.

 

At the same moment, sirens from the firetrucks and ambulances rushing to them became louder, and then they were there, their lights flashing against the buildings as people climbed out of the vehicles. The Principal went to go greet one of them, the most official looking one. Youngjae knew what he would say. A small accident. It had been put out, now. They were sorry for the trouble.

 

Stretchers came out of the back ends of the ambulances. Youngjae watched as the two teachers who had run to help hauled the student in the middle to one of the stretchers, and the paramedics settled them in. Youngjae took a step. He had to get closer. Before he knew it, he was running.

 

He ignored Junhong's warning shout of his name and pushed through the teachers who barely noticed him coming, and it felt like the world fell away when he saw who was on that stretcher, as the paramedics pushed the stretcher to the ambulance closest to him.

 

It was Yongguk, his face darkened by ash. His eyes were closed, but his chest was rising and falling, and Youngjae felt both relief and guilt - relief that it wasn't Daehyun, and guilt that he was relieved it wasn't.

 

He turned his gaze, and Daehyun was sitting in the back of one of the other ambulances. He had an oxygen mask pressed to his face and a shock blanket around his shoulders. Himchan was next to him, though with only the shock blanket. Youngjae exhaled and walked over, trying to control his nerves.

 

Daehyun watched him. Ash marked his face, too. The hand he used to hold the mask to his face was red, an angry burn covering the back of it. When he reached him, Daehyun wordlessly shifted over, so that Youngjae could sit next to him, as well.

 

"Are you okay?" Youngjae said. His voice trembled. Daehyun didn't look okay. His breaths were slow, and if he looked closely, Youngjae could see that both of his hands were shaking, even the one holding the mask.

 

Daehyun didn't say anything, but his eyes flashed blue.

 

"Yongguk had a flashback," Himchan explained, his voice rough and low. His skin was unblemished; for a moment Youngjae had forgotten that Himchan was a firestarter, too. "We woke him from it, but by then, the damage had been done. He'll be okay, though."

 

"Here," Youngjae whispered, gesturing with his bottle of water. He made sure that none of the paramedics were paying attention before drawing the water out of it and molding it to fit over the burn on Daehyun's hand. 

 

Daehyun's eyes fluttered closed. He made a noise behind the mask and very slowly lowered his head onto Youngjae's shoulder, and he felt hot all over.

 

.

 

The smoke cleared out pretty quickly. Mage fire was always like that. Yongguk had returned after a few days, deeply apologetic and somber. Himchan told them all it would just take a while for him to get back to his usual self, don't worry. All would be well.

 

Classes resumed and, after a week, it was like the fire had not even happened at all. Except that Daehyun had a scar in the shape of an arrowhead on the back of his hand and an open invitation to lay his head on Youngjae's shoulder whenever he wanted, which was often.

 

Youngjae and Daehyun still trained at night, and ate together, and sometimes they studied together, too. Sometimes, they would be studying and Youngjae would fall asleep in Daehyun's bed and wake up with the covers on him and Daehyun gone. Sometimes he was still there when he woke up, smiling with a dimple and reaching out to muss up Youngjae's hair. 

 

Something had changed between them. Youngjae wasn't sure what it was, but it meant their fingers brushed when they walked side by side down the halls, but it meant Daehyun's door was always open to him. It meant small touches and a smile tucked into the corner of Daehyun's mouth whenever he saw him.

 

It was also fragile, though, like a sheet of thin ice. Youngjae didn't know how to cross it into something more certain, how to navigate the ice so that this thing between them wouldn't shatter.

 

"What are you doing?" Daehyun's voice cut through his thoughts, echoing in the cavern-like space of Level Water. It was just the two of them again, tonight. Taehyung had been there, earlier, but left soon after they'd arrived, eyes wide and full of awe. Youngjae wondered, briefly, if that's what he'd looked like before, when he'd thought of Daehyun as some sort of demi-god, something to be fawned over and put up on a pedestal.

 

"Thinking," Youngjae said. He remembered the time Daehyun had spoken to him months ago, in this very spot, complimenting him on his skill with the rain. He made a sign, and tried to make it snow. The water flickered, like it was considering changing, but did not.

 

"About what?" Daehyun was practicing the details. The dragon he'd made at Himchan-hyung had been large and lopsided and incomplete, back then, and his teachers made sure he knew it. Now, he sat on the platform and formed crystals of ice in the palm of his hand and tried to create fine figures with them, paying attention to the weight and depth and shade of the ice. The ice formed into a rosebud as Youngjae turned to watch.

 

"About you," he said.

 

The rosebud fell apart. Daehyun did not look up at him.

 

"About how you told me you'd never made it snow, before," he continued. "I think you should try, again."

 

This time Daehyun did look up at him. His eyes were blue and stayed that way. The color stole Youngjae's breath. 

 

He thought Daehyun would grow angry at him, or rebuke him, or simply walk out, but all he did was look at Youngjae, and then he stood up, dusting the ice from his hands, and smiled. Youngjae's knees felt weak. "Okay," Daehyun said.

 

He raised his hands. Water fell to the ground as hail. "Hm," he said.

 

Youngjae inched closer, until he was standing next to him, and their fingers brushed together. "I was trying, earlier. I think it almost worked."

 

"Try again," Daehyun said, his breath coming out in mist. Youngjae shivered.

 

Youngjae raised his hands, and they were tingling from Daehyun's touch, and he thought of snow. The water flickered again, hovered, and then it broke apart. White, fresh snow fell to the platform. Daehyun held his hand out and cupped it, curled his fingers around it, and when he opened his hand again, there was a tiny, delicate star in the center. 

 

Youngjae looked at it, looked at him, his smile so wide he felt it must have been taking up half of his face. Daehyun said, "You've got snow in your hair," and brushed it away, his hand lingering.

 

"You try," Youngjae said excitedly. "Come on, I think it'll work!"

 

Daehyun grinned, snapped his fingers with the hand closest to Youngjae's face, and snow leapt up from the water, swirling around them and reaching high before drifting back down to the platform slowly, flakes of it getting caught in Youngjae's eyelashes as he looked up and laughed, cheeks flushed. "How did you do that?" Youngjae demanded happily. Snow still fell from the ceiling.

 

"I'm thinking about something that keeps me grounded, and warm."

 

"What's that?" Youngjae laughed.

 

Daehyun said, "You," and stepped forward to close the space between them, and kissed him.

 

.

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt: HI!Do you know the manga Fairy Tail? Well if you don't its okay I was wondering if you could make a daejae out of this story. There are two characters one is Gray a super HOT Ice mage and one Juvia is a cute and really beautiful water mage Juvia is in love with Gray the Ice mage (he has a cold personality but he really cares about her). Juvia is always all over Gray and he freaks out. Can you make a daejae like this? Youngjae as Juvia and Daehyun as Gray? It doesn't have to be the same thanks!
> 
> Follow me at [my tumblr](http://paperkrane.tumblr.com) or [leave me a prompt!](http://andnowforyaya.tumblr.com/ask) :)


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